At the Edge of Reason: Teaching Language and Literacy in a Digital Age

Abstract

Canadian schools are witnessing widening gaps between traditional definitions of literacy, which include reading and writing, and contemporary literacy practices like interactive multimedia use and online communications. Language and literacy teachers are called upon daily to bridge these contradictions through the pedagogical and textual choices they make in their classrooms. This article reports work in a study funded by Canada's Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). This study comprised a qualitative inquiry into three teachers' experiences and textual stances of authority within the rapidly evolving environment of language arts classrooms. Situated understandings of the teachers' personal and professionally situated literacies complicated their daily pedagogical and textual choices. Theorized divisions between modernist literacy approaches and evolving postmodern practices emerged as a more complex set of discourses within the contact zone of contemporary language arts classrooms than originally anticipated, including a ‘horizontality’ to the classes' critical literacy practices. These findings have implications for the education of pre-service teachers, the development of literacy pedagogy, and the continuing debate as to what it means to be literate in today's information society.